I'M NOT MOVING!

Dad’s new job means moving to the city, a tough adjustment for little Keesha.

“I got the job,” Dad says. “We’re moving to the city!” Mom says. “I’m not moving,” Keesha says. And so it goes, all through packing, loading up the car and driving past the farm and lake and woods she loves on the way to the big sunny apartment the three of them will now call home. Dad lets her paint the walls of her new room any way she’d like. Keesha chooses trees and a lake and a horse, but “It’s still not home,” she says. Dad takes her for a walk; there’s a park not far from their apartment, with a small zoo within. Mom tells her to put on her dance clothes. They check out a handful of classes that look interesting, though nobody wears a pink tutu like Keesha. She’s also negative about her new school, until she finds out that she gets her own computer, sees a classmate wearing a shirt with a horse on it, and starts dancing with the others. Sold! Blevins refreshingly defies stereotypes with a heroine who happens to be African-American moving from the affluent ’burbs to the alien city. Cerrato employs a spectrum of colors to good effect. Her shapes and big-eyed, big-headed people have a Lego vibe.

Pleasant and reassuring.